Beast
by Legacy of the Phoenix
Summary: Clark is forced to go head-to-head with a formidable new sociopathic enemy with a grudge against someone he loves. Shares continuity with and takes place after "Balance", "Transfer", and "Discovered". I own only the character Mark Dent. See "Willowbrook" for a refresher on what Kyla's parents look like. Clyla.


It is the weekend and Clark continues to write his story on his computer, having already begun work on it last week. He is doing quite well for a beginner. Not once dealing with the typical inevitability of writer's block. Even so, he takes his time with it.

"… _closes the door, seemingly never to be seen again._ _Seemingly_ _."_ Clark mumbles as he writes. He hears the knock at his door, "Come in!"

Martha walks inside with a snack for Clark; two slices of apple pie and a tall glass of milk.

"What, you couldn't give me the whole bottle?" Clark jokes.

"Yeah, right." Martha rubs Clark's hair. "How far did you get?"

"Just finished Chapter 6." Clark continues to write. "Still don't know if I'm gonna go for 20 or 21. But the way it's shaping up, it might be end up being 19."

"Well, let me know when you're finished." Martha reveals, "I went to college with the editor of Waid Publishing. I can put in a word for you."

"Thanks, Mom." Clark sips some milk.

Martha taps him on the shoulder and leaves the room.

* * *

At the Willowbrook House, Kyla sits in the living room with her parents as they watch a copy of the footage Mark took of her when she fought John Togan last week. They pause it.

"So, what does he want?" Karen asks her.

"To meet him alone at the Sedgwick County Zoo after closing. His uncle runs the place." Kyla replies. "To be honest, I didn't think he was this smart."

"He's not." Chance gets up and grabs his keys, "And I'm going to make him understand that."

"How, Dad?" Kyla asks. "Tuning him up isn't going to change how many copies he probably already made."

"She's right." Karen insists, "It'd be better if we just talked to him."

"I really don't think that _is_ better." Kyla points out, "If he's messed up enough to do this, there's no talking to him."

"You never know. While we go, you stay." Karen gets up to leave with her husband.

"And don't call Clark." Chance insists. "Just 'cause he's _Naman_ doesn't mean we need to depend on him for _everything_."

Chance and Karen leave. Kyla expresses her frustration with a low wolf growl.

* * *

This time, Clark has actually developed a bit of a writer's block and has decided to deal with that by way of walking around town looking for inspiration. The first place he goes to is his old friend Greg Arkin's treehouse near the Creekside Foundry.

"Why not?" Clark jots something down as he looks up to the treehouse.

Next, Clark arrives at Crater Lake and stares off into the distance as he continues to think.

"Got it!" He jots down something else.

Later, he stands before the land that used to hold the Luthor Mansion and immediately jots quite a few things down. Since Lex's departure from Smallville following the death of Lana, the selling of The Talon has not been the only result. The Luthor Mansion has been taken off of the land brick by brick back to Scotland, leaving nothing. Not even the fountain.

"Hmm." Clark looks down in sadness, missing his friend.

Finally, at Smallville Cemetery, Clark's journey for inspiration ends at the grave of Lana Lang, his deceased close friend that he still believes died because of him. After taking a moment to grieve and mentally beat himself up in guilt, he jots something down and heads home.

* * *

At his home, Pete is in the garage trying to start up his car with jumper cables. He fails again.

"Erggh!" Frustrated, he goes back into his house to take a break and get a snack. He is momentarily distracted when he sees his father Bill shout and dance in excitement as he reads something from the mail.

"Dad, what's up?" Pete asks curious.

"See for yourself, son!" Bill flashes the paper at him and explains, "The deed to our old creamed corn factory! After Old Man Luthor shut down the plant, Luthor Jr. must've found out about it and sent it to us. I gotta go tell your Uncle!"

Bill grabs his coat and departs out the garage. Pete has a moment to himself to think. Looks like Lex wasn't so bad, after all. Sure, he wasn't the one who got ahold of his family's business years ago, but even so, Pete still saw him as being a shadow of his father and despised him just as much. But if he is willing to do this, take time out of his high upper-class life in Metropolis to do this, then, maybe. Just maybe, he should've given him more of a chance. Like Clark did.

* * *

Back on the farm, Clark takes a break from writing and prepares to head to Pete's house to help him with his car. The only thing stopping him is a conversation with Jonathan.

"Yeah, I wanted to be a lot of things. A football player. A radio host. A writer." Jonathan admits, "But I was only meant for one thing. Don't let that be you, son."

"Thanks, Dad." Clark backs out of the driveway and heads to Pete's house in the pickup truck.

Once there, the boys converse as they try hard to get Pete's car to start.

"Really? That's great!" Clark says, "Guess Lex wasn't as bad as you thought, huh?"

"Turns out he wasn't bad at all. I just couldn't see it." Pete admits. "Anyway, Dad went to see my Uncle Dale to talk about getting it up again."

"Think you'll want to work in it?" Clark asks.

"Well, a man with a job _and_ a car would look good for the lady." Pete inserts his keys.

"Only if she found out one of the guys you worked with is a meteor freak." Clark has his bare, invulnerable hands on the car battery along with the cables. "Try again."

Pete turns his keys and the car miraculously starts!

"Yes! Thank you! Finally!" Pete exclaims in relief. "You really are freakin' super, you know that?"

"Eh." Clark modestly shrugs.

"So, uh, how's the book going?" Pete asks.

"Made it to chapter 8." Clark detaches the jumper cables. "I should probably be thinking about a title now."

"My Mom wrote a book once. Fresh out of law school." Pete shuts his car hood, "She said writing the story was tough, but coming up with the title was even tougher. She waited til she was done to come up with one. Had to go over the whole thing to make sure whatever she picked made sense. I mean, she went through _a_ _lot_ of titles she told me. _Authority_. _Penance_. _Detainment_. She landed on _The Law_. Original, right?"

"Penance?" Clark thinks, " _That_ could work."

"Don't tell me you've got super-writing powers, too." Pete wonders.

"If I get to Chapter 21 by tomorrow night, you can add that." Clark jokes. "Let's go see what's on."

Clark and Pete go inside the house to watch something.

* * *

That night, at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Chance and Karen meet with a smug Mark in front of the Silverback Gorilla Exhibit near closing time. Karen is about to speak diplomatically when,

"Had a feeling she'd send Mommy and Daddy in her place." Mark chuckles.

"Believe me, she didn't want to." Chance coldly greets him, "Mark Dent, right?"

"Yeah, but the thing is, Mr. W, I don't want you. I want Kyla." Mark replies. "You two can't do anything about this, but she _can_."

"And what is that?!" Chance aggressively stomps towards him, but Karen stops him.

Mark replies simply by taking out a vial of liquid meteor rock.

"What are you-?" Karen asks.

"I went through some of that Chloe girl's _Wall of Weird_ crap and found out how normal people can get powers." Mark dangles the vial, "A little bit of this and a little bit of something else. _That's_ what I want. I want Kyla to kill one of those lions over there, get a piece of them, and bring that piece to me so I can make my own meteor freak cocktail and be better than I ever was. My Dad will never lay a hand on me again. And no girl will ever make me look bad again."

In surprise and disgust, Karen remarks, "Mark…you need help."

"No. I need _this_. And her." Mark replies, "Freaks like her are gonna find out sooner or later that they're at the top of the food chain and once that happens, normal people are gonna bite it. So, call her here."

"Or what?" Chance challenges the boy. "You'll send another copy?"

"Between you and me, I already sent them both." Mark then takes out a gun, "First was to her. The second, to Chloe. Can't picture how she feels finding out her new best friend's part of her wall. Wonder if Kent knows."

"Why are you doing this?" Karen asks horrified.

"I told you why. And now, I'm telling you, again, to call Kyla. Or…" Mark shoots Karen in the leg.

"Agh!" Karen cries out in pain but is actually not as hurt as a normal person would be.

Chance tends to his wife but then angrily glares at Mark, "You little bast-"

Mark points his gun at Chance, "Finish that sentence and I'll cap more than her-"

Mark ceases speaking when he notices Karen's wolf eyes in addition to her flesh wound pushing out the bullet and immediately healing the damage!

"So…it runs in the family!" Mark nods in fascination. "Looks like I don't need Kyla after all."

"You listen here-" Chance stands up and readies to attack Mark,

"Ah! Ah!" Mark keeps his gun on Chance, "Play the hero and you make the ultimate sacrifice! Into the lion's den, Mrs. W! Or we're gonna have a reenactment of a Clint Eastwood western right here and-"

GRRR! An angry Kyla, her eyes being completely wolf-like and her hands being semi-similar to wolf-claws, suddenly appears to grab Mark's wrist and neck before she lifts him off the ground!

CRACK! "Agh!" Mark drops the gun when Kyla twists his wrist, forcing him to cry out in pain.

"Kyla, no!" Karen shouts to her daughter.

GRRR-ROAR! But it is too late! Kyla resists the urge to kill Mark only to use her strength to toss him into the Silverback Gorilla Exhibit!

"AGH-OOF!" Mark lands hard on his back in the Gorilla Exhibit. He touches his chest with his vial still in hand before…

SNORT! ROWWWWR! Four Silverback Gorillas, registering both Mark and the meteor rock fluid as a threat, bum-rush towards the young athlete!

"Holy-! Agh!" Mark starts to scoot away but is unable to get far before the four large primates catch up to him with their far greater speed!

ROWWWRRR! BAM! BAM! POUND! POUND! POUND! The gorillas each begin to viciously pummel the defenseless Mark, incidentally breaking the vial of meteor rock fluid onto Mark's chest. Simultaneously, the gorillas' relentless assault causes them to touch the meteor rock fluid as they beat on the boy!

"No!" A remorseful Kyla tries to undo her mistake and rescue Mark, knowing that she is at least strong enough to overpower all of those gorillas.

"Kyla!" Karen grabs Kyla to stop her; Chance joins in and points out once the gorillas disperse, "It's too late."

A severely battered and broken Mark lays lifelessly on the ground. His eyes still open.

* * *

Later on that night, Clark hears about what happened and rushes to his girlfriend's aid at her home. She tells him everything. Mark's footage. The zoo. Everything. He stays with and comforts her until she falls asleep. Once she does, Clark goes downstairs to talk to Chance and Karen.

"Hey." Clark asks, "Was anybody else around? At the zoo?"

"N-no." Karen shakes her head, "Mark told Kyla that he wanted to meet right around closing."

"So, the body's still there?" Clark asks.

"Y-yes." Chance looks to Clark uncomfortably, "Son, what is it you plan on doing?"

"What I have to." WOOSH! Clark speeds out of the house.

Chance and Karen look to each other in worry.

WOOSH! Clark arrives inside the Silverback Gorilla Exhibit at the Sedgwick County Zoo, having picked up an empty body-bag on the way. The gorillas begin to emerge when they sense Clark's presence, but then, they back away in fear when they apparently recognize his true nature. Clark loves Kyla very much. He is willing to do absolutely anything and everything it takes to keep her safe from danger. To keep her from becoming a target. That is precisely what will happen if he does not do something. Kyla's half-wolf DNA will not be overlooked if the authorities find it on Mark's neck and wrist. Not now. Not when not only Smallville, but the entire world, now knows about meteor freaks. But, as it turns out, that may actually be the least of his problems.

"What the-?!" Clark is shocked to find Mark's body no longer where the Willowbrooks said it was. All that remains is a completely crushed cell phone and a small droplet of liquid meteor rock on the ground next to it. He immediately deduces what this means. Mark is not only not dead. Mark is not even Mark anymore. Mark is not Human anymore.

WOOSH! Clark speeds out of the zoo, easily avoiding detection from the night guards outside.

* * *

On the Dent Farm back in Smallville, Mr. Dent, in his blue robe, cheerfully emerges from his bedroom after sexually abusing his own wife; whom is heavily bruised, barely conscious, and covered only by a bedsheet; and heads downstairs to get some beer. He takes out a bottle and sips some before he notices what appears to be Mark standing in the shadows.

"What're you doin' here?!" Mr. Dent wonders in hostility. "It's the weekend! Your Mom and I's private time! Get out of my sight!"

Mark does not reply. He does not even move.

"What, you deaf _and_ dumb?!" Mr. Dent storms towards Mark with the intent to punch him, "I said get—AGH!"

CRACK! Mark catches his father's fist with far superior strength and speed than he has ever had before and begins to crush it mercilessly!

"Agh! Agh! Agh! Ragh!" Mr. Dent fruitlessly tries to get his hand free of his son's grip! "GACK!"

SNAP! Mark coldly snaps his father's neck with his free hand. He then smiles afterwards, having greatly enjoyed the endeavor.

That same night, Sheriff Ethan and several other cops arrive on the Dent Farm with paramedics, who respectively scope out the entire farm and zip up the body bag that now contains Mr. Dent's corpse. Mark seems to comfort his mother, whom is wearing a pink robe, as he lies his way through a statement he gives to the Sheriff.

"…got stupid drunk as usual and tried to hit me, too. That's when he fell downstairs and broke his neck." Mark rubs his mother's arms, sensing that she is cold.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like to have you come down to the Station and tell _your_ story, Mrs. Dent." Sheriff Ethan insists.

"Come on, Mom." Mark gently pushes his shaken, emotional mother into the Sheriff's car.

Unbeknownst to Mark, Clark has been distantly listening and has heard everything ever since the police arrived, having recently developed super-hearing. He knows the truth. He knows that Mark murdered his father in cold blood using his new powers. And he has a gut feeling that he is not going to stop there.

* * *

That same night, Pete is over at Chloe's, whom is speechless for once in her life. A meteor freak right up under her nose in the form of a friend she just made. Or so she thinks.

"Well, technically, she's not a meteor freak." Pete explains, "Said she was born this way."

"So, Clark knew?" Chloe looks to Pete.

"And now we do, too." Pete partially lies, not wanting his girlfriend to know that he has known about Kyla for some time. "You got a choice to make, babe. Is Kyla gonna be a scoop…or your friend?"

Chloe wrestles with that decision. She feels bound to her work as an investigative journalist that broke the story on meteor freaks and is being sought after by multiple newspaper companies. Even the Daily Planet. Simultaneously, she has bonded with Kyla in a way she has not with anyone since Lana died. This should be an easy choice she thinks. But it is not.

* * *

The following morning, Clark arrives with his parents at the Willowbrook house; Jonathan carrying his shotgun with ammunition. Clark has convinced them to help him watch and protect Kyla's family while he protects Kyla himself. And that is not all. Pete arrives with Chloe to lend a hand, the former having finally gotten through to the latter concerning priorities. Clark pulls Pete to the side,

"What'd you tell her?" Clark asks.

"What do you think?" Pete grins, "Mark wants to get back at Kyla, becomes a freak himself, and wants to finish what he started."

"You're a good friend, Pete." Clark lightly taps his arm.

* * *

In the woods, Mark is testing the capabilities he has absorbed from the gorillas' beating via traveling through the treetops and leaping around at an incredible speed. He further tests his strength when he runs through the woods with his arms stretched and topples every tree he makes contact with. But he is not satisfied.

He makes his way back to the Sedgwick County Zoo and enters the Silverback Gorilla Exhibit. The four gorillas sense and surround him.

ROWWWRRRR! The gorillas attack Mark.

ROWWWR! ROWWR! ROWWRR! ROWWRR! Mark easily manhandles all four primates at once using their combined strength, speed, agility, and ferocity against them.

Rowr! Rowr! The gorillas depart from Mark's presence, having admitted defeat.

"Almost ready!" Mark excitedly grins.

* * *

It is now the middle of the day and Mark has yet to come for Kyla and her family due to his self-training to make sure he is more than a match for Kyla and, just in case, Karen. Clark is speeding around town and using his senses to look for Mark to make sure he does not get the drop on them and remains in contact with Pete, who sits in the Willowbrooks' living room. Jonathan and Chance sit on the front porch and talk as they wield respective shotguns. Martha and Karen sit in the kitchen as they themselves converse. Kyla and Chloe converse in the former's room.

"This bracelet wasn't the only thing handed down by the women in my family." Kyla explains, "All of us, every generation for who knows how long, has been a skinwalker. And most of us have learned how to control it."

" _Us_ excluding you." Chloe realizes.

"Mom's been showing me the ropes, but I'm kind of a slow learner." Kyla admits.

"So, why didn't you tell me?" Chloe wonders.

"I'm not used to sharing who I am. I spent most of my life living with this secret in Granville." Kyla carefully responds. "Clark understood me because, in his own way, he felt different, too. Pete only found out by accident and Clark asked him not to tell anyone."

Chloe seems to understand why Kyla has kept this from her and even respects her for it, knowing full-well that her first instinct is to blast the truth either on the internet or the _Torch_. Still, she is hurt that Kyla did not trust her.

* * *

Clark stands a few yards away from the Dent Farm with his phone in hand, "He there yet, Pete?"

" _Nah, man. No sign here."_ Pete replies.

Clark is frustrated by his inability to pick up on Mark's location despite his powerful advantages and the town being quaint in addition to fully-aware of the existence of meteor freaks. It occurs to him that Mark may have either left town or is doing a very good job of hiding somewhere in town. Even so, he knows he has to keep looking. For Kyla's sake.

"All right. Keep in touch." Clark hangs up on Pete and speeds away.

* * *

By nightfall, Mark has somehow tracked down most of the strongest meteor freaks in town and brawled with them on Chandler's Field. Some had strength and invulnerability. Some were fast. One could move things telekinetically. And one had sharp bone-like protrusions from her limbs. Regardless, Mark has prevailed in each and every one of these fights and ultimately decides that he is ready.

"Kyla…you're mine, babe." Mark cracks his knuckles.

* * *

On the front porch of the Willowbrook home, Jonathan and Chance pace around to avoid falling asleep; their guns still gripped in their respective hands.

"Ever since we got Clark, I've been getting some real exercise." Jonathan jokes. "Maybe one day, I'll get back into college shape."

"Not even in our dreams, Jon." Chance jokes.

Both men stand their guard and cock their respective guns as they look around for the source of a sudden sound. They look to each other and remain keenly fixed on whatever is out there.

THUMP! THUMP! PATTER! A large, shadowy figure dashes past Jonathan.

BANG! Jonathan misses the far faster figure.

Chance steps down from the porch, but then urges Pete and the females when they emerge in reaction to the sound of the gun, "Stay inside! He's here!"

THUMP! THUMP! PATTER!

BANG! Jonathan again misses the shadowy figure. A predatory Mark.

"Maybe you oughta stick to corn and cows, Mr. K." Mark taunts from within the shadows. "You're a lousy shot."

"Easy to say when all you're doing is running." Chance challenges Mark.

"Like that matters." Mark suddenly appears behind Chance and deliberately leaves himself wide-open for attack.

BANG! Chance turns around and shoots Mark right in the chest! But to his horror, he finds that the gun has no affect on Mark's extremely durable chest!

"Why don't you partner up?" Mark mocks the two men, completely confident in what will happen next.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Jonathan and Chance are baited into this taunt and fire at Mark, emptying their respective guns. Once they both click empty, they look to Mark in shock.

"Too bad." The completely unaffected Mark grabs both rifles and crushes them with his bare hands. THUMP! ZOOM! POSH! CRASH! He then speeds behind the two men and pushes them all the way back onto the porch, breaking the chairs and knocking them unconscious.

WOMP! CRASH! Leaping high in the sky like a gorilla, only much stronger, Mark crashes through the roof of the Willowbrook home and lands right in the kitchen, where Martha holds two kitchen knives in self-defense while Karen fully morphs into her wolf-hybrid form, a more ferocious version of her daughter's.

"Ladies, please." WHAM! Mark stomps on the kitchen floor, creating a shockwave that forces Martha to fall and drop the knives.

GRRR! Karen avoids this, however, and leaps behind Mark before she begins unleashing a flurry of attacks with her claws and strength, displaying much more skill and dexterity than her daughter.

Mark laughs off all of her attacks as he easily parries and blocks them due to his superior strength and agility in addition to his recent combat experience despite it being only for a day. He eventually grabs her by the throat and slams her hard onto the floor, thus rendering her unconscious and forcing her to revert back to her pure Human state. Martha tends to her and looks at Mark with horror.

"Later, Mrs. K." Not seeing any point in attacking Martha, Mark leaps through the hole he made on the second floor and ends up in the hallway leading to Kyla's room. He bursts inside,

"Something tells me you're not half as good as your Mom, who wasn't even _that_ good either. So, make this easy on both of us and…"

"GRRR!" Kyla, in her wolf-hybrid form, leaps onto Mark from behind and jams her claws into his back.

"Mmm!" Mark is only slightly affected by this, considering it only a sting. BAM! BAM! BAM! He repeatedly slams his own back against the wall in an effort to get Kyla off of him, which eventually works.

GRRR! GACK! Kyla starts to attack again, but Mark easily stops her assault when he grabs her wrist and neck in similar fashion to what she did to him.

"Doesn't feel good, does it?!" Mark tightens his grip, intent on strangling Kyla to death for her humiliating and rejecting him.

SHATTER! To help Kyla, Chloe slams a plant-potter on Mark's head, but it has no effect!

Bam! "Ow!" Pete punches Mark in the face, but only succeeds in hurting himself, not even making Mark blink!

"It's good to have friends. Even if they _are_ dumb!" BLAM! BLAM! Mark consecutively kicks both Pete and Chloe out into the hallway, rendering them both unconscious. He then turns his full attention back to Kyla, who fruitlessly tries to break free of Mark's grip.

"Now, where were we?!"

SHATTER! Mark throws Kyla out of her own window; the latter gradually shifts back into her Human form as she descends. Before she could hit the ground,

WOOSH! Clark finally arrives just in the nick of time to catch his girlfriend, only appearing just now due to earlier staking out Sedgwick and tuning into Smallville with his super-hearing when Pete did not keep him posted like they agreed.

" _You made it."_ Kyla speaks hoarsely, touching her boyfriend's face.

Clark furiously glares up at Mark, who in turn stands at the window and glares down at him with an intrigued expression, curious as to how Clark has gotten to the Willowbrook house so fast. He gets his answer when he sees Clark, in a millisecond, speed into the house to lay Kyla on the couch in the living room and speed right back outside to stare him down. Or up.

"Well, well!" THUMP! Mark swings like a gorilla outside of Kyla's window and flips once before he lands on the ground not seven feet from Clark, "Wish I knew you were part of the circle of freaks, Kent. I sparred with a lot of them earlier."

"Make this easy on yourself, Mark." Clark insists.

"What, you're mad because I put your girl through a window?" Mark taunts. "With what she can do, she probably would've lived…till I got down here."

"You're down here _now_ …with me." Clark clinches his fist. Ordinarily, he would do more to talk meteor freaks out of their twisted paths. But this time, he is in no mood. Mark insists on making trouble for Kyla. He has recorded her, threatened her, and just now, has tried to kill her. He is not going to let it slide. Not this time.

"Hope you don't think being fast is enough to compete with me." THUMP! ZOOM! Mark speeds out of Clark's sight, but the latter is not surprised.

WOSH! Clark speeds to the right and holds out his arm.

"GACK!" Mark is clotheslined by Clark's extended arm and ends up falling on his back!

"Huh!" THUMP! THUMP! ZOOM! Mark springs himself back up and speeds towards Clark.

BLOOSH! Mark throws a left punch at Clark, but he parries to the right to avoid it.

BOOSH! Mark throws a right punch at Clark, but he parries to the left to avoid it.

WHOOSH! Mark throws another punch at Clark, but he ducks to avoid it.

BAM! Clark sends Mark bouncing back eleven feet with a strike from his palm.

Mark, realizing that he has underestimated Clark, decides to get serious.

BOMP! BOMP! BOMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! He beats his chest like an actual gorilla and charges towards Clark at great speed.

FWOOSH! Mark leaps at Clark and throws another punch but misses when Clark parries again.

TONK! Mark then remedies this when he jams his prehensile foot into the ground and do a backflip towards Clark!

CRACH! Mark then grapples onto the off-guard Clark from behind and wraps his arms around the young farmer's neck!

Though surprised at Mark's true strength, Clark is not deterred.

WOOOOOOSH! Clark grapples onto Mark's arms and speeds around like a tornado, creating a powerful gust of wind as a side effect, but primarily making it difficult for Mark to breathe and maintain his grip.

CRASH! SLAM! Clark manages to pry Mark off of him and slam him down onto the ground, once again making him bounce across the Willowbrook's land.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! ZOOM! Mark regains his footing and speeds towards Clark.

WOOSH! Clark mutually speeds towards Mark.

BLAM! Clark lands a restrained punch on Mark's abdomen, which causes him clear pain.

"Yah!" CRACH! SWIDDLE! Mark reacts by grappling onto Clark's arm, swinging around him with great agility, and then purposely landing on his back to gain enough momentum to pick Clark up by his prehensile feet and toss him eight feet over his head!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Clark's bouncy landings create small sonic booms until he regains his footing and stares down Mark.

"Yah!" Mark leaps towards Clark with his fists cupped!

BLOOM! Clark blocks the attack with one arm and punches Mark in the face with a restrained strike.

BAM! Though again affected by Clark's blow, Mark responds with an uppercut.

FWAM! He lands a right punch on Clark.

BLAM! He lands a left punch on Clark.

POW! He sends Clark sliding across the dirt with a double kick from both prehensile feet, though he fails to knock him down.

Clark realizes that this time, he has underestimated Mark even though none of the latter's attacks are actually hurting him. Merely fazing him. Not only that, but he remains angry and blinded by the danger Mark put Kyla and her family in and for this reason, really wants to hurt Mark. Because of this, he is fighting a little sloppier than normal, he finds. Well, no more.

THUMP! THUMP! ZOOM! Mark speeds up to Clark.

BAM! Mark lands a punch on Clark's abdomen, but this time, he does not even faze him.

SLOSH! Mark leaps up in the air and throws a kick at Clark.

KURK! SLAM! Clark easily catches the kick with both hands and slams him onto the ground, hurting him.

"Errgh!" Now furious himself, Mark unleashes a flurry of attacks onto Clark!

FWOOSH! Mark throws a right punch at Clark, but he parries.

BOOSH! Mark throws a left punch at Clark, but he parries.

POOSH! Mark throws another punch at Clark, but he back steps to avoid it.

BLAM! Mark actually lands a punch on Clark's face this time, but the latter easily takes it without a problem.

KURK! Clark blocks Mark's left punch.

KURK! Clark blocks Mark's right punch.

BLAM! Clark staggers Mark with a restrained headbutt.

FWAM! Clark lands a restrained right punch on Mark's face.

BAM! Clark lands a restrained left punch on Mark's face.

POW! Clark sends Mark flying through the air with a restrained uppercut.

CRASH! Mark lands on the ground twelve feet away from Clark. THUMP! Though hurt and exhausted, he defiantly stands up again, angrier than he has ever been.

"Stay down! It's over!" Clark declares.

"Errgggh!" THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! ZOOOM! Mark charges towards Clark and leaps at him with everything he has despite the effort being fruitless.

"Ugh." TEERZ! Fed up, Clark sighs and uses a controlled burst of heat vision to inure Mark's left knee, throwing him off-balance and interrupting his momentum!

"Agggh!" BOOM! BOOM! Mark bounces on the ground towards Clark.

CRACH! SLAM! Clark catches Mark by his shirt, lifts him up in the air, and uses restrained yet impressive strength to slam him hard onto the ground, knocking him unconscious and ending his threat.

Clark then goes to see about Jonathan and Chance, who finally awaken. As Jonathan and Chance tend to Martha and Karen, now conscious herself, Clark checks on Kyla on the sofa and warmly touches her face. He then goes upstairs to check on Pete and Chloe, themselves awake and tending to each other.

"What happened?" Chloe asks Clark.

"Dad and Mr. Willowbrook took down Mark. I got here in time to help." Clark convincingly lies.

" _They_ took him down?" Chloe rubs her head in pain, "How? The guy was stronger than a _planet_ of apes. How's Kyla?"

"Good." Clark nods.

* * *

The following day, Clark, Kyla, and Pete, the former two holding hands, watch as Chloe loads some suitcases and her laptop into her car. Her father Gabe helps with the heavy one.

"Thanks, Dad." Chloe nods.

"Not necessary, sweetie. Have fun." Gabe nods to Clark and the others before he heads back into the house.

"You sure you don't want us to come with?" Pete asks in concern.

"Positive." Chloe explains, "I'm not mad at you. Any of you. I just…I just need some time and space to think. Course, I don't know how much of that I'll get to do given which cousin I'm staying with."

"Lois, right?" Clark asks.

"Five cows for you." Chloe shuts her trunk.

"Listen, Chloe-" Kyla tries to explain.

"I get it, Kyla." Chloe politely interrupts. "I slept on what you said and it's why I need to go. Think about every choice I made. Every article I posted. Every…freak I met. I need a major priority change. Later, guys."

Chloe fires up her car and leaves her premises as her friends wave a temporary farewell.

"Don't worry. She just needs time." Kyla rubs Pete's back.

"For you, yeah." Pete looks to Clark, "But what is she gonna think about you? I mean, you sure you wanna tell her?"

"She's gonna find out eventually. Just like you would've if I didn't tell you." Clark remarks. "Town's changed. Time to roll with it."

"But today, I don't know about you guys, but I could use a coffeecake at the Hot Java." Kyla remarks.

"Same here." Clark and Pete agree.

Clark and Kyla hop into Pete's car and the three friends ride away to the Hot Java.


End file.
